Former Ambassador to Australia and Japan, Tom Schieffer, will declare Wednesday morning, June 24th, that he is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor as he kicks off his campaign in his hometown of Fort Worth. Schieffer confirmed his intentions to run this morning on Inside Politics, which airs in the DFW market on WFAA channel 8.
In a wide ranging interview with WFAA reporter Brad Watson and Dallas Morning News reporter Gromer Jeffers, Schieffer declared that Texas suffers from a crisis in leadership:
Texas is at a critical point right now. I worry that we are falling behind not only the rest of the country but the rest of the world and we live in an increasingly globalized economy and we have to be a part of it. I think there is too much thought and too much talk about withdrawing into ourselves and I don't think that will serve the long-term interests of Texas.
Schieffer is the first real serious candidate to step forward to run for governor as a Democrat so far and knows that he'll have to answer tough questions about his time as ambassador during the George W. Bush administration:
I've never voted in a Republican Primary and I've always been a Democrat. In fact I didn't realize it until I started running for governor but I've never missed voting in a Democratic primary since I was old enough to vote in 1968. The president asked me to serve as an ambassador first to Australia and then to Japan and I told him that I would be honored to serve the country but that I didn't want to become a Republican. He said he was not asking me to serve the Republican Party he was asking me to serve the country, and I did. I think I did a good job. I would be proud to be the Democratic nominee for governor.
I don't believe the field has been fully vetted yet for Democrats in our gubernatorial contest. I have a feeling some more folks will be jumping into the fray soon and so Schieffer will not be alone in this battle to take on Perry or Hutchison in a general election contest. Schieffer clearly has a lot of explaining to do regarding his ties to the Bush administration and that could be the one thing that derails his candidacy more than anything. It's important to remain impartial and let this race play itself out, and so I intend to do that, and report in as fair and impartial a way as I possibly can. With that said, this Tarrant County native does share excitement about the fact that a serious and credible candidate from this county will be tossing their hat into the ring as a statewide candidate. Tarrant is the lone remaining metropolitan county still in Republican hands and Schieffer would slash, if not completely upend that advantage---a factor that he pointed out to me during our interview this past spring:
When you look at the last election and you analyze where Obama lost and won, he carried four out of the five largest urban areas, but he didn't carry Tarrant County. Well I'm from Tarrant County, and the neighborhood education that I got and my brother got make us hometown boys made good. I think it gives me credibility to get votes here in Tarrant County that no other Democrat can get.
That's really a game-changer folks, not just from a statewide perspective, but from a countywide perspective as well. If Democrats regain control, or simply be far more competitive in the lone remaining metropolitan county that remains red, you're talking dramatic change in the political landscape here in the Lone Star State. That's exciting.
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